Thou woldyst nevyr helpe man in daunger. _Tertius diabolus._ The synne of slauthe thi sowle xal shende, Masse nore mateynes woldyst thou non here, To bery the deed, man, thou woldyst not wende, Therfore thou xalt to endles ffere; To slowthe thou were ful prest. _Primus diabolus._ Thou haddyst rejoyse in glotonye, In dronkesheppe and in rebawdye, Unherborwyd with velonye Thou puttyst from here rest. _Secundus diabolus._ Sybile Sclutte, thou ssalte sewe, Alle ȝour lyff was leccherous lay; To alle ȝour neybores ȝe wore a shrewe, Alle ȝour plesauns was leccherous play. Goddys men ȝe lovyd but fewe; Nakyd men and ffebyl of array ȝe wolde nott socowre with a lytel drewe, Nott with a thred, the sothe to say, Whan they askyd in Godys name. _Omnes dampnandi._ A, mercy, Lord! mekyl of myght, We aske thi mercy and not thi ryght, Not after oure dede so us quyth, We have synnyd, we be to blame. _Deus._ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NOTES. Page 1, line 6. With pleys ful glad.] In the _Promptorium Parvulorum_ is given the following curious analysis of the different kinds of plays and players:—“Pley, ludus; pley, or somyr game, spectaculum; pley that begynnythe with myrthe and endythe with sorowe, tragedia; pley that begynnythe with sorow and endythe with myrthe, comedia; pleyare, lusor; pleyare that alwey wyl pley, ludibundus; pleyar at the bal, pililudius; pleyyng garment, ludix; pleyyng place, diludium.”—MS. Harl. 221, fol. 129. Chaucer gives us the same definition of tragedy in the prologue to The Monkes Tale:— Tragedie is to sayn a certain storie, As olde bookes maken us memorie, Of him that stood in gret prosperitee, And is y-fallen out of high degree Into miserie, and endeth wretchedly. P. 9, l. 17. Mevelyd.] So in the MS., but probably it ought to be _mervelyd_. P. 17, l. 10. Dele the comma after the word _dwere_. P. 19. THE CREATION.] Bagford has preserved in MS. Harl. 5931, v. 13, a printed bill of the latter end of the seventeenth century, wherein it is stated that “at Crawley’s show at the Golden Lion, near St. George’s Church, during the time of Southwark-fair, will be presented the whole story of the old creation of the world, or Paradice Lost, yet newly reviv’d, with the addition of Noah’s flood.” See Strutt’s _Sports and Pastimes_, ed. Hone, p. 166. The specimen 272 in the same volume is still more curious, and shows that the performances of mysteries, howbeit in a very different state, were continued in England up to a much later period than is usually believed: —